Why Love is Good For your Health
Love provides great health benefits. Dr. Helen Riess, director of the Empathy and Relational Science Program at Massachusetts General Hospital has done extensive scientific research on how great love is for you mind and body.
1. Love makes you happy: You know that feeling that you get when you first fall in love and feel like you’re on cloud? That’s because dopamine, the feel-good chemical in your brain, is very active. Dopamine elevates your mood and keeps you in a happy, positive state of mind.
2. Love brings your stress levels down: After you pass the honeymoon stage of dating, oxytocin starts acting up. It gives you the warm and fuzzy feeling. “When people feel securely attached, their stress levels go down,” she says. “Just being in the presence of someone who greets us with positive regard and caring can actually lower those levels of cortisol and adrenaline and create greater homeostasis, which means that your neurochemicals are back in balance.”
3. Love keeps your anxiety at bay: Being in love and close to someone can manage anxiety. Being lonely can cause stress levels to rise because of insecurity. Having someone to love and lean on can bring down your levels of anxiety and make you feel secure.
4. Love encourages a healthier lifestyle: Couples encourage each other to go to the doctor. Couples can often tell if their significant other is suffering from a health problem before their partner does.
5. Love helps you live longer: Married couples have been found to have lower rates of substance abuse, lower blood pressure and less depression than single peers. Having close social relationships give you many longevity benefits.
Love contributes positively to your physical and mental health. Having a healthy lifestyle gives you leverage when purchasing health insurance and life insurance. If you want lower premiums, you need to get yourself healthy. Contact Cosmo Insurance Agency, located in Lakewood and Hackensack, for a quote.
